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Movies / On DVD / The Hours
The Hours

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The Hours (2002)

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Reviews Counted:185

Fresh:149

Rotten:36

Average Rating:7.4/10

Consensus: The movie may be a downer, but it packs an emotional wallop. Some fine acting on display here.

Runtime: 1 hr 56 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Based on the Pulitzer-prize winning novel by Michael Cunningham, THE HOURS employs Virginia Woolf's classic novel and central character, MRS. DALLOWAY, as its foundation and inspiration. Spanning... Based on the Pulitzer-prize winning novel by Michael Cunningham, THE HOURS employs Virginia Woolf's classic novel and central character, MRS. DALLOWAY, as its foundation and inspiration. Spanning three different eras, during one day, the film focuses on the parallel lives of three women joined in their depression, alienation, and search for love. Nicole Kidman, wearing a prosthetic nose, is virtually unrecognizable as the tortured writer Virginia Woolf whose ongoing battle with mental illness eventually led to her tragic suicide in 1941. The film begins with the moment of her suicide and flashes back on her life and work as she crafted her most memorable character, Clarissa Dalloway, in 1923. In 1950's California suburbia another woman, Laura Brown (Julianne Moore), struggles with alienation and depression. Trapped by her clinging young son and an adoring husband whom she does not love, the desperate woman tries to prepare for her husband's birthday but cannot stop reading MRS. DALLOWAY. Finally, in modern day Manhattan, Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep), a lesbian who lives with her lover (Allison Janney) and her daughter (Claire Danes), struggles to prepare a party for her ex-husband (Ed Harris) who is dying of AIDS. Director Stephen Daltry uses beautiful overlapping editing to sew the women's interwoven stories seamlessly together. At the core of this profoundly moving film is the trio of award-winning actresses who grace the screen with their bold and awe-inspiring performances. [More]

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Toni Collette

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Toni Collette, Claire Danes, Ed Harris, Allison Janney, John C. Reilly, Eileen Atkins, Stephen Dillane

Director: Stephen Daldry

Director: Stephen Daldry
Screenwriter: David Hare
Producer: Robert Fox, Scott Rudin
Composer: Philip Glass
Studio: Paramount Pictures

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Reviews for The Hours

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181 - 193 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

A lovingly crafted meditation on death, loss and literature.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
12/23/02
Andrew O'Hehir
Andrew O'Hehir
Salon.com

Conjures some spectacular settings and grown-up topics, but has no story to speak of.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
12/23/02
Sean O'Connell
Sean O'Connell
Filmcritic.com

Daldry creates a visual language with deep, rich metaphors.

Full Review Source: Phantom Tollbooth | comment Comment
12/23/02
J. Robert Parks
J. Robert Parks
Phantom Tollbooth

A grave disappointment...oppressively intricate and melancholy without offering much compensatory insight.

Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | comment Comment
12/23/02
Frank Swietek
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

Blessed with exquisite performances and seamless cross-cutting between historical time periods, Stephen Daldry's superbly crafted chronicle examines depression, disaster and death.

Full Review Source: www.susangranger.com | comment Comment
12/21/02
Susan Granger
Susan Granger
www.susangranger.com

With her highly publicized phony nose, Kidman becomes an entirely different creature. I don't know if it's her, or if the nose is magical, but one of them deserves an Oscar nomination.

Full Review Source: Planet Sick-Boy | comment Comment
12/20/02
Jon Popick
Jon Popick
Planet Sick-Boy

Mr. Daldry and Mr. Hare have succeeded in preserving and even enhancing both the episodic structure and the spiritual essence of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Cunningham novel.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
12/19/02
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer

Hare's crisp screenplay adroitly ... keeps faith with Cunningham's meditative prose while adding enough unobtrusive exposition to externalize the characters' emotional lives.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
12/19/02
Ella Taylor
Ella Taylor
L.A. Weekly

A preposterous faux-feminist manifesto that blames the woes of the modern day female on her historical disconnectedness.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
12/17/02
Ed Gonzalez
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

While the story is more literary than cinematic, the make-up folks backstage are headed for Oscars.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
12/17/02
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

Considerable intelligence and strategic finesse have been brought to bear on this handsomely mounted adaptation of Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
12/13/02
Todd McCarthy
Todd McCarthy
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A fascinating and ultimately successful stunt in its cross-cutting among the decades.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
12/11/02
Kirk Honeycutt
Kirk Honeycutt
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This picture will be a major contributor to the award nomination scorecard on both sides of the gender aisle.

Full Review Source: Cinema Signals | comment Comment
11/25/02
Jules Brenner
Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals
 
 
181 - 193 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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Latest News for The Hours

May 05, 2008: Kidman tipped to play Dusty Opens in new window
Nicole Kidman has been tapped to play the bee-hived chanteuse, Dusty Springfield, in a biopic to be written by Michael Cunningham, who she worked with for The Hours. More...

June 21, 2006: Natalie Portman Aboard "Boleyn" and "Kavalier"
The universally-adored and very cute Natalie Portman seems to have a pretty high profile pair of freshly-inked contracts. On one hand, she'll be starring in a historical drama... More...

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